German Royalty - from welcome German homes to Palaces

Let me start off by saying a big IM SORRY to my sister Jenifer for mis-spelling her name in the last post, and a thank you to my sister Lindsay for the warning on the last post. :). Typing on a German keyboard is a little difficult because the letters are not in the same place, so it takes 3 times longer to get anything written, much less spelled well. We are sorry Jay!

Well, we are back, with an update on our third (and last) day in Prague, as well as our first two days in Munich. This will be a long post as we will catch you up on 3 days of travels. On our last day in Prague we needed to find a place to leave our luggage. The previous day we had checked out the luggage lockers at the train station, which were less than encouraging. In three different travel books they had recommended to use the manual baggage check (where you leave your bags with an actual person ) versus the locker checks. When we went to the train station we discovered that there was no more manual baggage check, only the lockers. And in contrast with the lockers in Vienna, these had an actual key that could have been duplicated by any person who wanted to pull the key out for a moment, have it duplicated and return it to the same locker. So there could be hundreds of people with thousands of keys for each locker. Needless to say, we would have carried the bags on our backs from 11:00am -8:00pm rather than leave them in these lockers.

Luckily Jan, the man who rented us the room, said we could keep the bags in the main kitchen area for free until 6:00. Somehow Tim worked out a "gentlemens agreement" with him, after he wanted to charge us 25 euros for the late checkout if we decided to keep them in the room. This was such a blessing to us, and though we were slightly skeptical, we decided it was the best of all of the options. We locked all of our bags together, and were off for the rest of the day. After lunch at a restaurant called "the two cats" we decided to spend time in the last of the things we wanted to see and do on our last day. We looked at the main square again, and went into some of the souvenir shops. We also went to a few glass stores, as Tim and Michelle wanted to pick up a piece of Czech glass, and we were able to find one that we liked. We also went to a black light show, which is a play that includes elements of black light reflecting on the white parts of the clothing of the actors. It was an . . . interesting show, called Aspects of Alice, which was loosely associated with the Alice in Wonderland story. And by loosely, I mean loosely.

It was a great day of walking around, talking, and making one last visit to the grocery store before we headed over to the train station. We picked up our bags and made the 15-20 minute trek to the train station. By this time it had started to sprinkle, which made the trip a bit harder. The streets in Prague are beautiful, with different colored stones making simple mosaics on the side walks, but once they get wet, they are very slippery. So you add a 25 lb pack on your back and walk for a mile, and it is a bit . . . precarious.

We finally made it to the station and had about 1.5 hours to wait for the train. This was the hardest train station to be in, as the interior is not designed to be aesthetically beautiful, and has little by the way of creature comforts. It may have been more beautiful at one time, but has since fallen into a bit of disrepair. This is not a station that we would choose to spend much time in. The nice thing is, the police presence is felt, and that is a great comfort as we were there for a while. We finally boarded the train, and after a while Duane and Brandon were able to switch rooms to Michelle and Tims. We were alone for about 30 minutes when two other men joined us. They were from Long Beach California and were pretty nice guys. They were also traveling around Europe, and since they were on the young side, we were able to share travel stories and suggestions. They were supposed to have tickets on this train, but their travel agent reserved their tickets for September, even though their Eurorail tickets ended in the middle of August. So the train personnel were very nice and did not fine them for traveling on the train without tickets, but our two extra beds were the only ones on the train that were open for the night. So there were 6 of us on one very small room. It was not the best nights sleep for any of us, but we managed.

When the train came to the train station we were excited to see Marina and her mom already there waiting for us. It was a beautiful sight to see people we already knew there. We were warmly welcomed, and we soon came to love Marnias mom. Her name is Renata, and she speaks English very well. We made introductions and made our way to the ticket agent to make reservations for our way out of Munich. It turns out that the German schools began their vacations on the day we arrived, and the first train we could get out of Munich was a day later than we planned because all of the previous trains were full with vacationing students . Renata was nice enough to allow us to stay for 4 days instead of 3. We are so blessed to be able to have such great friends.

We then left the ticket agent and Renata bought us our first pretzels with butter on them, which was a great treat since we had not eaten anything since lunch the previous day. We hopped on the S-Bahn train and made the 20 minute train ride out towards Marinas house. It is a beautiful house with three stories (3 on top, one basement). The first story (ground floor) is the kitchen, dinning room and living room, the second story is Renata's room as well as the office and Marinas room is a large on on the very top. It is about as big as Tim and Michelle's first apartment. WOW! Renata has given Tim and Michelle her room, and Duane and Brandon are sharing the office nearby. It is wonderful to have such accommodations after the smaller quarters we have had so far.

We had a great breakfast full of pretzels, butter, jam, and bread with tea and coffee. After showers and a small nap break we were off to explore the sights of downtown Munich. We looked in on two different churches, one of which was built into the surrounding buildings that you could almost miss it as you walked down the street. They were both so beautiful In one we climbed to the top of the bell tower, and Marina and Renata gave us a tour of the surrounding areas. We also walked in the square and into a few gourmet shops selling pastries and lunch type meals. We bought some pastries and ate them in front of the Opera house, which was a great view to see. We then went in front of the main clock to watch the glochenspeil (the parts of the clock that move at each hour). Unfortunately only 1/3 of the glockenspeil was working as the rest was not operating due to renovations. It seems that many of the sights that we have seen have had some form of restoration, which has limited the amount that we could see and experience. Sad, but at least we were able to see some of it.

Once we were finished with the glockenspeil we made our way to the Hofbrauhous. This is one of the most famous beer halls, which has wall to wall tables and beer flowing everywhere. They do serve food as well, and our party ordered both. Tim had something called a Radler, which is 1/2 Sprite and 1/2 dark beer. It has a sweeter taste to it, which was good. Michelle and Duane had the lighter beer, which was also very good. They were all 1 litter beers, which looked so big, and the steins were so heavy that Michelle had to lift hers with both hands. The food was good as well, and we enjoyed looking at all of the other people in the hall that had a bit too much to drink. We were there early, and were able to find a table, but by the time we left the place was very full. Others were happy to get our table.

After dinner we continued walking the town and had some ice cream. We walked a bit more, then headed home on the S-bahn. We tucked ourselves into bed and enjoyed a good nights sleep. It was a great day, and we were glad to share it with good friends.

In the morning we again enjoyed a great breakfast, this time full of cheese, meat and more tasty bread, as well as Nutella and jelly. Brandon has now realized that he loves Nutella, and it was hard to pull the container away from him! He was very excited to learn that you can buy Nutella in the states!

After breakfast we loaded into the rental van that Renata had rented for the 6 of us to take us to Neuenschwanstein Castle, which is the one that Disney modeled their castle out of. It was a 1.5 hour trip out to the castle, for which we had reservations already established. We also had a surprise, in that we were picking up Pia along the way to the castle. Marina and Pia were both exchange students with Tim and Michelle two years ago, and they had not seen her in two years. It was a great treat, and we were excited to see her. The seven of us headed up to the castle.

Once there, we learned that our reservations were not fully completed, but the kind counter lady allowed us to join the next English speaking tour, which was 2 hours away. This was fine, as we had a 45 minute hike up to the castle itself, from the ticketing area we were in. We slowly made our way up the hill, and enjoyed a small bit of lunch once we were there. The castle tour was great, and the castle itself was beautiful. If Renata had not rented a car for us, I don't know how we would have made it over there, as it was not close to town at all. Thank you Renata! We all enjoyed our time, and Duane bought a book on the history of the castle that Michelle is excited to read about when she can get her hands on it. :)

After the castle we all loaded into the van, and promptly fell asleep. Once we dropped Pia off at her Vespa so she could go home, we made a scenic tour back to Marinas home by stopping off at a different town for coffee and pastries. We visited an old church with original stained glass windows that were beautiful and took some great pictures. Renata gave us a history of the town and the walls surrounding it, and we visited one of the walls just outside the city. We then headed home. On our way we stopped off at a German grocery store, which was enjoyed by all. So many great things we have never seen, especially the great cheese and meats at the deli counter.

Once at home Marinas sister had homemade lasagna and appetizers waiting for us, as well as red and white wine. It was a great meal, and I think we all ate way too much. Marinas sister is named Bettina, and she is a urologist in a local town. So after a hard days work and some complicated surgeries, she came to Marinas house to cook us a meal. What an amazing person, and since she speaks wonderful English she is a great addition to dinner conversation. After dinner we had lemon ice cream with lemoncello liquor over it. With all of the days happenings we are feeling like royalty. It was one of our best meals of our trip, and it is nice to feel like you can let down your guard and be at home. It will be hard to leave in another two days!

That is all for now. Tomorrow we are off to the Dachau concentration camp, which should be a somber experience. We will make a day of it, by sleeping in a bit, finishing laundry and making our way over to the camp. Renata is concerned that we don't do this as our last thing, so that our last memory is not the camp. It will be an enlightening experience, if nothing else.

More to come . . .